ou were I don't know that I shouldn't want to tell you, just
the same," she observed. "The fact is I've just GOT to talk this over
with some one. Mr. Bangs, I am so worried I don't know what to do. It is
a money matter, of course, that's worryin' me, an investment father made
a little while before he died. Mr. Bangs, I don't suppose it's likely
that you ever heard of the Wellmouth Development Company? No, of course
you haven't."

And yet, as she looked into her lodger's face, she was surprised at its
expression.

"Why, you never have heard of it, have you?" she demanded.

Galusha stroked his chin. "That day in the cemetery," he murmured. "That
day when I was--ah--behind the tomb and heard Captain Hallett and Mr.
Pulcifer speaking. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that they
mentioned the name of--ah--ah--"

"The Development Company? Of course they did and you told me so when you
got home. I remember now. Well, Cap'n Jeth and Raish were both mixed up
in it along with father. Yes, and Doctor Powers and a lot more, though
not so much. Raish, of course, was at the back of it in the beginnin'.
He got 'em all in it, got himself into it, as far as that goes. You see,
it was this way."

She told the story of the Wellmouth Development Company. It--the
story--began when the Eagle Fish Freezing Company of Denboro, a concern
then running and operating one large cold storage plant in that village,
were looking about for a favorable spot upon which to build a second.
The spot which appealed to their mind to purchase was the property at
the mouth of Skoonic Creek in East Wellmouth.

"It's a real pretty place," said Martha, "one of the prettiest spots
alongshore, and the view from the top of the bluff there is just
lovely. You can see miles and miles out to sea and all up and down the
shore--and back over the village, for that matter. But, come to think of
it, you know the place, Mr. Bangs. It's only a little way from the old
Baptist buryin' ground."

Galusha nodded. "Isn't it where my--ah--late lamented hat set sail?" he
asked.

"Why, of course it is. Just there. Well, the Eagle Fish folks made their
plans to buy all that property, the hills on both sides, and the low
land down by the creek. It was just the place for 'em, you see. And they
were quietly makin' arrangements to pick up the different parcels of
land from the owners here and there, when Raish Pulcifer got wind of it.
There's precious little goin' on down this